The Prague Sonata

Description

Pages of a weathered original sonata manuscript - the gift of a Czech immigrant living in Queens - come into the hands of Meta Taverner, a young musicologist whose concert piano career was cut short by an injury. The gift comes with the request that Meta find the manuscript's true owner - a Prague friend the old woman has not heard from since the Second World War forced them apart - and to make the three-part sonata whole again. Leaving New York behind for the land of Dvorak and Kafka, Meta sets out on an unforgettable search to locate the remaining movements of the sonata and uncover a story that has influenced the course of many lives, even as it becomes clear that she isn't the only one seeking the music's secrets.

Bradford Morrow is the author of eight novels, including Trinity Fields, The Diviner's Tale, and most recently, The Forgers, as well as a short-story collection, The Uninnocent. He is the founding editor of Conjunctions and has contributed to many anthologies and journals. A Bard Center Fellow and professor of literature at Bard College, he lives in New York City.

Twining music history with the political tumults of the 20th century, The Prague Sonata is a sophisticated, engrossing intellectual mystery... [Morrow's] captivating, hopeful book presents a vision of the broken past, restored. * Wall Street Journal * Bradford Morrow is an astonishing writer. -- Joyce Carol Oates A treasure of a novel, a deliciously enveloping musical mystery which I read with marvel and gusto. -- Diane Ackerman Bradford Morrow is remarkable. The Real Thing, which is rare on this earthly plane. -- Michael Cunningham This rich, masterful novel brilliantly explores the complex tumble of history, the human capacity for good and for evil, the fragile but redeeming glory of art. Morrow has long been one of America's finest novelists. And this humanely epic tale is his finest book. -- Robert Olen Butler Bradford Morrow has written his masterpiece. The Prague Sonata is a rich, joyous, complex journey into the city of Prague, the claims made upon us by music, and several dark, dark corners of human experience. -- Peter Straub An elegant foray into music and memory. * Kirkus *